PE and Sport

A Passion for Sport

At Hotham, we value the importance of Physical Education and promoting healthy lifestyles for our children. Our dedicated full-time sports coach works with all children in the school to support their development in sport, gross motor, and their understanding of healthy lifestyles.

Through our curriculum, we expose pupils to a broad range of physical activities that are carefully mapped out with the aim of ensuring our pupils will go on to lead healthy and active lives. Our curriculum progression in Physical Education builds upon agility, balance and coordination in EYFS to a broader range of skills and knowledge in years 1 to 6. Rather than working a sport at a time, we teach children transferable skills and knowledge (for example, throwing) which are then applied to a range of sporting disciplines.

Healthy Competition

We recognise that lots of our children are looking to put their skills to the test in the form of sporting competitions. We help and guide them to achieve this by preparing and fielding teams in a range of sports. While we of course want our children to be successful on the sports pitch, we also emphasise the value of team-work, and accepting winning/losing in good grace. Recent accolades which we are very proud of our children for achieving include:

• Current holders of the Wandsworth boys football trophy (2019 - it hasn’t run since!)

• Winners of the 2021 Wandsworth Panathlon

• 1st place in Surrey Schools Cross Country 2021

We also run a large number of sporting after-school curriculum clubs - open to all - to help children hone their skills in a particular discipline. Examples of clubs we have offered recently include football, rugby, basketball, handball, netball, athletics, gymnastics, dance and more!

PE Curriculum

Intent: Vision and Philosophy of PE

Our PE curriculum aims to inspire all children to be active, show resilience and determination to learn new skills and enhance prior learning. We provide a safe and supportive environment which provides them with the opportunity to be successful in a range of physical activities. At Hotham we teach key essential skills such as teamwork and leadership and our PE curriculum provides opportunities to further develop these skills. We encourage children to take part in the competition element of sport and to develop their understanding of the importance of fair play. Our curriculum is inclusive and supports all children in developing confidence in physical activity to support their health and fitness. We encourage pupils to develop their understanding of the way in which they can use their body, equipment, and apparatus safely, imaginatively, and effectively. Our PE curriculum, along with Science and PSHE teaches children about the importance of physical activity and nutrition to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Our ‘Happy Healthy Hotham’ approach supports children in understanding how physical activity and healthy eating can impact positively on emotional well being.

Implementation: What does PE look like at Hotham?

Our PE curriculum follows the ‘Get Set 4 PE’ scheme of work which is closely aligned to the National Curriculum. This scheme supports a clear and sequenced progression of skills and knowledge, both within each year group and from one year to the next. All children receive at least two hours of PE a week, taught by a specialist PE coach in most cases.  This consists of one lesson per week of outdoor PE (we use the hall in cases of adverse weather conditions), plus another lesson of gymnastics, dance or swimming. Pupils in Y3, 4, 5 and 6 also receive swimming lessons taught by qualified swimming coaches to enable our pupils to competently, confidently and proficiently swim a distance of at least 25 metres. 

After school sports clubs are also offered to pupils to enhance the sports provision on offer and provide children with an opportunity to further develop their skills. At play and lunchtimes, children also have the opportunity to participate in physical activity.

Impact: Evidence and Assessment of PE

• Our curriculum is designed so that children are taught a variety of activities throughout their key stage and there is a progression journey through all of these. Each area of PE also has a progression ladder which shows progression from EYFS to Year 6. 

• Children also deepen their understanding of PE, year on year, by being introduced to specific vocabulary which is also mapped on a vocabulary pyramid for each area. 

• Children have the opportunity to take part in extra-curricular activities and demonstrate their new skills in intra and inter sports competitions. All children also have the opportunity in the summer term to take part in a sports day. 

Swimming

Pupils in Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 receive two terms’ worth of weekly swimming lessons at Putney Leisure Centre. This means that pupils who are at Hotham throughout Key Stage 2 usually leave our school with good swimming skills.

In line with National Curriculum requirements we assess pupils on their ability to:

• swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres

• use a range of strokes effectively

• perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

At the end of July 2023, our Year 6 cohort demonstrated the following skills:

• 44/52 – 85% swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres

• 40/52 – 77% use a range of strokes effectively

• 48/52 – 92% perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

PE Overview

Please see an overview of our PE curriculum below.